As known, a fuel cell produces electricity through an electrochemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen. The fuel cell may continuously produce electrical energy upon receiving a chemical reactant from outside without having a separate charging process.
A fuel cell may include separators (or bipolar plates) which are disposed on both sides of a membrane-electrode assembly (MEA) therebetween. A plurality of fuel cells may be arranged to form a fuel cell stack.
In the MEA, a core part of the fuel cell and an anode and a cathode as electrode catalyst layers are formed on both sides of an electrolytic membrane to transfer hydrogen ions. The MEA further includes a sub-gasket to protect the electrode catalyst layers and the electrolytic membrane and to secure assembly characteristics of the fuel cell.
When manufacturing the foregoing MEA, an electrode membrane sheet unwinds the electrolytic membrane which is wound in the form of a roll and continuously transfers electrode catalyst layers to be spaced apart by approximately, 150 mm pitch on both surfaces of the electrolytic membrane.
In a post-process, the electrode membrane sheet wound in the form of a roll is unwound and transferred, sub-gaskets in the form of a roll are unwound to be positioned on both surfaces of the electrode membrane sheet. The sub-gaskets and the electrode membrane sheet pass through between hot rollers such that the sub-gaskets are bonded to both surfaces of the electrode membrane sheet, thus manufacturing an MEA sheet in a roll-to-roll manner.
In addition, the MEA and a gas diffusion layer (GDL) are bonded at a high temperature, in which bonded assemblies and separators are alternately stacked to manufacture a fuel cell.
Research into a quality inspection system for inspecting quality of the assemblies and preventing a defective product from being applied to a fuel cell has been conducted.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention, and therefore, it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.